Obama Threatens NDAA Veto, Colbert Mocks ‘War on Men,’ and More

Possible Rejection:

President Obama has issued his first veto threat since being re-elected. The White House on Thursday said advisers would urge Obama to nix the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 because it “breaks from the president’s budget request, limits his ability to pursue his defense strategy and trespasses on his power,” The Huffington Post writes. Among the issues not singled out, however, was the controversial NDAA provision that allows the military to indefinitely detain American civilians. (Read more)

Ailing Bush: Former President George H.W. Bush is in the hospital, where he is being treated for a “chronic cough.” The 88-year-old’s illness is not considered life threatening. “He is in stable condition, and is expected to be released within the next 72 hours,” a statement from Bush’s office said. (Read more)

Bill, Interrupted: A piece of legislation designed to increase the privacy protection of electronic communication–including email, Facebook and Twitter—has been put on hold by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Moreover, it seems Congress doesn’t consider the issue a pressing one, given that the bill isn’t expected to be picked up again until 2013 at the earliest. (Read more)

Order in the Court: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is being sued over an executive order she signed barring young undocumented immigrants with federal work permits from getting driver’s licenses. Brewer signed it in response to an Obama administration policy enacted in June that would keep up to 800,000 immigrants from being deported. The lawsuit, filed by an immigrant rights group Thursday, seeks to overturn Brewer’s order. (Read more)

Hanging On: Rep. Mike McIntrye, D-N.C., survived a recount to win back his congressional seat. The conservative Democrat managed to stave off Republican challenger David Rouzer, winning re-election by a meager 654 votes out of 336,000 cast. Rouzer says he has not ruled out another bid in 2014. (Read more)

New Boss: Jeff Zucker, the former chief executive of NBC Universal, has been named the new president of CNN. Zucker replaces Jim Walton, who announced this year that he would step down amid plunging ratings for the cable news network. Zucker most recently served as the executive producer of Katie Couric’s syndicated daytime talk show. (Read more)

Video of the Day: As if there weren’t enough reasons to love Stephen Colbert already, here’s one more to add to the list: his epic takedown of anti-feminist Suzanne Venker’s “War on Men” article (which you can read more about here) on “The Colbert Report.”